OMNICOM GROUP SHOPS TAKE HOME LION'S SHARE AT CANNES AD FESTIVAL: AA TALLY EVEN EXCLUDES PRIZE WON BY GOODBY

The big winners at this year's International Advertising Festival in Cannes were agencies-and agency networks-owned by Omnicom Group.

Based on a weighting of 7 points for a Gold Lion, 5 for a Silver and 3 for Bronze, to reflect the relative values placed on the awards by the festival, the top three international networks this year were TBWA Worldwide, DDB Needham Worldwide and BBDO Worldwide (see chart above).

Using a straight count of the number of Lions won, the top three international networks were DDB Needham on top, followed by BBDO and TBWA.

GOODBY WINS GRAND PRIX

Making the Omnicom sweep even more impressive, the film Grand Prix this year went to Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, a San Francisco agency owned by Omnicom, for three Nike spots. The agency is not included in these rankings because it's not a global network.

Goodby also picked up a Silver Lion for a Budweiser TV campaign for Anheuser-Busch.

Collectively, Omnicom's three international networks won a total of 91 Gold, Silver and Bronze Lions. The networks of rival Interpublic Group of Cos. picked up only 17 Lions, for McCann-Erickson Worldwide, Ammirati Puris Lintas and Lowe & Partners. At WPP Group, J. Walter Thompson Co. and Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide managed to capture just 11 Lions.

LOCAL SHOPS' SUCCESS

Much of Omnicom's creative success comes from its local agencies, often run by local creative stars with substantial ownership stakes. In Brazil alone, Sao Paulo agencies DM9 DDB and Almap/BBDO were ranked by the Cannes festival as two of the three top agencies.

DM9 DDB was named Agency of the Year this year based on the festival's weighted ranking of awards won and number of entries short-listed.

Last year DM9, which doubled the size of the DDB network in Latin America when DDB Needham bought it a year ago, was an independent agency.

The two runners-up to DM9 DDB's Agency of the Year were TBWA Chiat/Day, Venice, Calif., and Almap/BBDO.

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Laurel Wentz

Laurel Wentz is Advertising Age's Global and Multicultural Editor, responsible for international and U.S. Hispanic coverage. She is based in New York. She previously covered Europe from Ad Age's London bureau, and before that was Latin America editor, based in Sao Paulo. The best way to reach Laurel is by email at lwentz@adage.com.